Atlis' Planets

[Atlis]

Hey everyone, I have been a lurker for a while, and I finally decided to show some of my own work here

Let me know what you think, C&C welcome!

[Tovette]

Hi Atlis. Great planet art so far! You have a lot of potential. I could give you some crits if like on how I think you could improve your renderings. Keep on truckin'

[Atlis]

I would love some tips and tricks! Anything useful would be most welcome

[Tovette]

Okay, For the first one you have a very even lighting situation and usually, there is a hotspot on the portion of the planet that's closest to the star or whatever is the primary lightsource. The surface features would also be lit differently, like water has a higher specularity index than say ground cove; but even ground cover has varying high lights as well. You might also want to very subtly light the darkside of the planet as well as space is a 3D space and starlight is coming from all over.

The second one is neat. I like the blooming effect of the star, although I feel the planet would be much darker and more silohuetted out because the brightness of the star is so much more powerful, although this is purely my opinion. As for the planet itself, it appears to be the same one from the first image, so I have no crits that I haven't stated before. One more note- I'd be very wary of using the lens flare filter. Unless it's absolutley necessary, don't use it. It's one of the prime signs of a beginner digital artist.

The third one is neat as well and has a nice emotional vibe to it, but I think the compisition of the illustration could use some tweaking- The planets are too far to the edge of the image and makes my eye roll off the edge. The primary job of a composition is to keep the eye moving around the canvas, to take it on a trip but never really let it escape. Also remember the balance of the image. The colors are alive and vibrant but the palette is a tad garish. The cyan color of the nebula is great- but nebulas usually are a collidascope of colors. Try adding violets and cobalt blues to the nebula to really bring it alive. Some warm tones in the nebula could also be used to move the eye around by strategically placing those colors behind planets or framing the cooler colors of the nebula already there.

The fourth one is great. I love your textures on the planet, it gives it all sorts of life. I also like that you added an atmosphere- but pay attention to the falloff of that atmosphere- it's much to thick and moves away from the planet surface to much. I like the greens and yellows on the planet too. The position of the star (which i assume is the primary light source) and the manner in which the planet is lit does not make sense. The planet would be almost totally backlit with a very brith halo effect happening; which you have included but that broad surface on the top is not consistant with the where the star is. I also like that you have the dark side of the planet lightly lit.

Over all your pictures are very interesting to look at and just require some tweaking to make them really pop. I would suggest that you reference planets and other astronomical photographs in order to get a point of reference when you create your own works. In art, nothing is more important that reference. An artist is only as good as his reference- something a fellow art friend told me; and it's true. As for the technical aspect of your work, here is a tip in painting- unless aboslutely necessary, don't ever use solid black or white. Black will robe your painting of color and white will bleach it out leaving it bland. It's very possible to use very white-ish colors and tricking the eye into thinking it's pure white based on the palette on the image.

Good work!

[Atlis]

Thanks for the tips! I hold a very odd sense when it comes to my work, once I "publish" it I refuse to go back and change it because I feel it robs it of its original intention. I understand everything you noted and its all stuff I have struggled in my work. My biggest problem is that I can rarely recreate a particular image because of my constant change in the techniques that I employ to do.
I made the first two today using a completely method than the other two which I made quite some time ago. I don't think it's necessarily a digression, more of a learning experience. I hope to one day to throw all of these methods together and create something unique and eye catching!

On a side note, do you by any chance have a really good tutorial for making an atmosphere? Thats one of my problems is creating a believable atmospheres.

[Tovette]

The best tutorial you have is from studying the world around you and attempting to immitate it as much as possible through study and practice as from that techniques emerge that help improve your craft.
There are tuts for creating atmospheres on planets. I suppose the one member I can think of who would give you some solid pointers is a fellow by the name of Aszazeroth. Try PMing him. He makes some pretty intense planets- albeit they are 3D and not painted, but his techniques can be easily applied to 2D art.

[limdaepl]

Hey Atlis,
the Planets are nice, a bit smooth for my taste but Tovette gave many useful tips already. You might also want to give this a read though. I found it very useful!
As for the starfields... try this: link

Keep it up!
Regards Roman